So sorry for taking so long with feedback but it turns out this book just isn't for me. Thank you for the chance to read and review!

I enjoyed Justin Cronin’s book, The Passage, although it’s not my typical genre choice. So I was interested in reading his latest, The Ferryman. Unfortunately, for me, this one was a dud. I started listening to it on audio on a long flight but eventually turned it off in favor of something else. It just didn’t hold my interest. Given that the book is more than 550 pages, that was going to be a very long listen and I found I wasn’t looking forward to that. So I opted to try reading it instead and nearly DNF’d it. I wound up skimming the rest of the book, just to see how it ended.

It’s hard to talk about the story without major spoilers so I’ll just say it starts out as a dystopian/utopian situation (haves and have-nots, basically) with a science fiction bent. But there’s a major twist eventually, that spoiled whatever enjoyment I was having.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book, although I was very late to it. I started with the published audiobook, courtesy of my public library. All opinions are my own.

Prospera is a lovely island isolated — protected — from the rest of the world. Its inhabitants live rich lives and pursue knowledge and creative endeavors. Their lives are typically longer than what’s common now, and they have access to excellent health care, beauty treatments of all sorts, and relaxation and recreation.

When the monitors embedded in their arms indicate that their health has dipped below 10 percent, they retire themselves from life and are taken by the ferry to the Nursery, where they are erased and rebooted as teenagers. These new young people come back to Prospera and get to start over and live fulfilling lives once again.

Proctor Bennett is a ferryman: he works at the government office where arrangements are made for citizens to go to the Nursery. He accompanies these people and takes care of their paperwork and helps them to feel comfortable as they get ready to start afresh.

But his own life is a little unsettling: he’s been having dreams, for one, and no one has dreams on Prospera. His monitor is showing he’s not at the healthy level he should be at his age. And then his own father (technically guardian, because no one gives birth, only adopts the teens coming over from the Nursery) comes to his end, and it doesn’t go smoothly. He gives Proctor a strange message just as he’s forced to get on the ferry.

As Proctor starts questioning some things he’s accepted as facts, the people who live on a connected island and who work for the Prosperan citizens are becoming restless. Their lives of servitude are not beautiful and fulfilling, and talk of revolution is circulating. Some are adherents of the idea of “Arrival,” almost a religious belief in something important coming soon.

Proctor and a few other primary characters start searching for the truth, and I found myself enthralled with the story, eager to find out the truth myself. In a book like this, anything is possible, and I turned digital pages quickly as I pieced clues together and came up with my own theories. I found the big picture to be fascinating, and the one simple but powerful truth that drove the story to be poignant. And there I just can’t say more because it would spoil any other reader’s experience. The whole book, all 538 pages of it, held my attention from start to finish and was crafted in such a way that the conclusion was very satisfying. The Ferryman came together perfectly. Such a cool story.

Justin Cronin takes us on another wild dystopian ride with "The Ferryman". If I'm being totally honest, there are moments that I didn't understand what the hell was going on. But with a cast of well developed, interesting characters, I enjoyed the story very much even if it left my head spinning.

Highly recommend when you can take your time and enjoy this novel unveil itself with some twist and turns you probably won't see coming.

Thank you to Ballantine Books and Netgalley for an advanced readers copy of this book for my honest review.

This review has taken me far longer to write than it should have. I read this in May and still can't wrap my head around how to write this review. So, it will likely consist of incoherent ramblings.

I really enjoyed The Ferryman, but I don't know if I fully understand what I read. Perhaps I am not smart enough to appreciate Cronin's concept. But make no mistake about it Cronin is a fantastic author. His simple yet meticulously thought-out prose is superb, and his worldbuilding is fantastic. I found the first half of the story to be near perfect. I was fully immersed, drawn in by the characters and the mystery. However, the middle felt drawn out and repetitive, and the ending left me a bit unsatisfied.

I imagine several people will love this. It is perfect for fans of dystopia, science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, and interesting concepts.

Well-paced world building! Didn’t get bogged down in the details while also clearly setting the stage.
In a world where it is our world, but it isn’t our world, authors can sometimes get too wrapped up in sharing the similarities while also say, “no, but it’s not the same as our world.” That didn’t happen here. We know this is different and the way we are explained that is very well done – sometime through “breaking news” sometimes memories and sometimes through the characters reflecting on “is this really what I want?” Overall, it was laid out well to not be info-dumping, but the reader also wasn’t left confused and disoriented.

Somewhat predictable, but loved most of the characters, so couldn’t put it down.
A little predictable, recognizing what’s probably going to happen (due to the nature of the book’s genre), but I couldn’t put it down and cared about the characters outcomes.

Great story; good for fans of The Matrix, The Island, and the Matched trilogy.
Stars 4
Would I Recommend? Yes

I am not a sci-fi/utopian girlie, but this one kept my interest. I ended up listening to the audiobook, and it was very good. Did I find myself confused and having a hard time keeping everyone straight? Yes. Is this why I don’t usually read this genre? Also, yes. However, overall I ended up surprisingly enjoying this story, and being able to keep it straight enough to feel I got a good grasp of everything!

I received an advanced digital reader’s copy of The Ferryman: A Novel by seasoned author Justin Cronin. Among the several honors Mr. Cronin has received for his previous works are the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane Prize. I’d like to thank Mr. Cronin, his publisher Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this fantastic, fantastical novel. My review is wholly voluntary.

Although the book is a whopping 530 pages long, it reads like a much shorter tome. I managed to read it in two days; the story is so utterly compelling that I couldn’t put it down. For the most part, I thought it was a regular, post-apocalyptic, dystopian tale, with the privileged “haves” living an idyllic life serviced by the poor, “have-nots,” each living in their own, separate and very different communities. Of unique interest is that the “haves” don’t reproduce like regular people, as the “have-nots” do. Instead, when their lifespans are considered finished, they are transported, or ferried, to a place where they are transformed into a new individual, memories of their previous lives erased. However, the story isn’t as straightforward as I initially believed. Eventually the storyline changes and takes so many different twists and turns it makes Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland look straightforward. In the end, it’s impossible to discern what is “real” and what is “imagined.”

Although I’m typically not a fan of science fiction or dystopian novels, when one is as well written and thought provoking as The Ferryman, I can’t get enough. The “real” vs. “imagined” aspects of this novel reminds me of Orson Scott Card’s classic Ender’s Game. If you haven’t read it, I recommend it highly. I also highly recommend Justin Cronin’s new novel, The Ferryman.

3+ dreamy stars
“Thus I beam this tale into the cosmos: this message in a bottle, tossed into the heavens’ waves. Perhaps there is no one to receive it. Perhaps there is but one mind left to listen; the mind behind all things… Whoever you are, in whatever form you take – time matter, light – I ask one thing only: that you leave us as we are. Let us sleep, and dream, and do the work of being human.”

In rating The Ferryman, I shifted my thoughts, adding stars then subtracting them and back. It is a creative (plus) work of fiction that got too long and jumped around (double minus).

In the first half the plot moved forward, character development was excellent, and I wanted to keep reading. (+++) Descriptions were fabulous. (+)“He was painting the way the day felt; nostalgic, with a hint of restless boredom.” Then the author started dropping too many fbombs, which I found distracting and unnecessary. (Big Minus.)

“Much as I tried, I was having difficulty computing any of it. Their words existed without meaningful reference, even to each other.” Around half-way through, I noted that as the character stated, things weren’t making sense. (Minus) Perhaps Cronin was over-zealous in creating a dream state? Characters changed their family relationship to each other. Characters completely gone from the narrative suddenly return. Considering myself a reasonable educated reader, I asked, “Huh?” The last third of the book had non-stop action, but it jumped through both time and space, confusing me. The characters agreed with me. “’You are disoriented,’ Bernardo went on.” I readily agreed. I wrote, ‘It’s like watching three sci-fi movies and someone keeps randomly switching the channels.’ “Does this place go on forever?” Like this character, at 75% through 538 pages, I felt like the book was starting to go on forever.

Justin Cronin knows how to write beautifully. I will close with a lovely ‘blessing’ from the main character. “I will give you childhood, so that you might know innocence. Age, so you will know the prize of youth. Children, so that you will care for the future. Toil, so that you will know the value of a day. The body’s failings, so that you will know its worth. Death, so that you will cherish the bittersweet beauty of life. We are, each of us, born a sparking soul, clothed only in our newness.” I needed this passage after some of the prior non-stop turmoil.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Ferryman didn't quite do it for me, BUT, Justin sure knows how to tell a story that will leave you feeling a little twisted.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing - Ballentine Books for this advanced readers copy. This book released on May 2, 2023.

Dystopian fiction is a favorite genre of mine and I had never read this author before. I enjoyed this book, but did find it a little long. It dragged a bit in the middle for me. I’ll definitely read more by Cronin though. I would have liked to see a little more curiosity from the people on Prospera, they seemed to not have any questions about their place in the society constructed within the book.

I tried several times, but I just couldn't get into this book. I didn't connect with the writing at all.

DNF

Thank you for the opportunity to read this one.

This book has a different quality about it that makes it very easy to read and make you think about it after you put it down. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

This was interesting. It's got some <i>Logan's Run</i> in it, a little <i>Matrix</i>, a hint of <i>The Island</i> and what ever other dystopian future concepts you want to add. This is set on an archipelago called Prospero. Everyone there has it great but there aren't any children. Instead, people adopt wards at 16, you live your entire life until you get really old and then you go to the Nursery where you are reset and begin a new life. Meanwhile, the support staff all live in lesser conditions on a smaller island called The Annex and you begin to get this sense of us versus them.

Proctor Bennett is a Ferryman. He helps those whose lives are ending get on a ferry to the Nursery where their lives will begin again. Then one day he gets orders to bring his "father" to the ferry and things begins to spin out of control.

I liked it well enough. Cronin has a way of writing though that really bogs me down. It's very dense and long. His vampire trilogy was the same way. I still haven't started the 2nd book because of it.

When people compare Cronin's work to Blake Crouch's, I understand the link. Both feature fabulous world-building with a complex story that unfurls rapidly over the pages, leaving the reader a little bit confused and a little bit breathless. In other words, it has everything I like AND don't like—really vigorous plotting and intriguing sci-fi elements, but a complexity that often feels deliberately obtuse or simply meant to make you feel a little bit dumb. I'd recommend it to sci-fi/speculative fiction lovers with the caveat that I wished I could use Google to understand how it all comes together.

Proctor holds a prestigious and important role in Prospera, a small island based society with two separate and unequal populations. When his father's decline triggers his return to the Nursery, Proctor accompanies him, a journey that gives him insight while raising at least a many questions.

There are strong undercurrents in the society and the story that play out gradually over time. The mysteries, the tangles of relationships all build the remain until the moment of reveal.

The Ferryman, Justin Cronin
Dystopian fiction is one of my favorite genres. Give me a Divergent/Hunger Games/Last Policeman/The Road fictional ride, and I’ll be with you (or in the case of McCarthy, I’ll be in a mental and emotional breakdown, but that’s for another day).
Cronin creates a fascinating alter-world not unlike Panem, though on a smaller scale (and with mostly grown-ups). Through the first 2/3rds of the book, this is mostly intriguing; themes of loss and family, purpose and ethics, and the nature of love are enough to keep me turning pages, even if I am somewhat confused most of the time (which is okay because I know I’m supposed to be). The writing is quick and engaging, the characters interesting, and the conflict is clear early on.
But even when the whole world is off-kilter and down is up and sideways is backwards, there are some things an author just shouldn’t do—things that create a sense of trickery, a betrayal of the agreement made between author and reader. So while this is a fast-paced, character-driven story that poses interesting questions about humanity, the end—well, you’ve been warned.

I was very drawn in by the synopsis and while I enjoyed this there is some things I didn't love. The concept of this book was great, but the execution could've been better.

This was my first time reading this author and I would go back and read some of their backlist.

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

560 Pages
Publisher: Random House Publishing – Ballantine Books, Ballantine Books
Release Date: May 2, 2023

Fiction, Sci Fi, Fantasy, Futuristic Worlds

Proctor is a Ferryman. He takes people that have life ending issues for reiteration (to be reborn). The souls come back as another form. His wife, Elise, is a designer and leads a busy life. He feels like something is changing in their relationship. He meets Thea at a theatre event and goes to her art gallery. The day he is assigned an assistant he also receives a letter about a necessary retirement. It is his paternal guardian. At the ferry dock, there is an incident and Proctor’s life begins to spiral out of control.

The prologue is Proctor’s mother describing her life and her two memories of Proctor that stand out in her life. The book then switches to Proctor’s point of view and his life. The story is fast paced, the characters are very developed, and is written in the first- and third-person point of view. If you like futuristic worlds, you will enjoy this book.

The farther I read in this book the less I liked it. In order to understand the story the reader must embrace the idea that Prospera's people, even though they are otherwise rational and kind, are incurious about their own completely unnatural biology and their place in a social system. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone but really, I could not suspend my disbelief.